How do we move activity-based modelling from a specialist capability to mainstream planning practice?
📢 The European Association of Activity-Based Modelling #EAABM has published a position paper
🔑 Key message: the challenge is how we collectively lower the institutional, technical and educational barriers to wider implementation.
🔗 https://eaabm.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/eaabm_position_paper_2026.pdf
My 3 highlights ⤵️
1️⃣ Institutional inertia:
"the practical adoption of activity-based approaches remains sluggish across Europe. This slow transition is heavily driven by established institutional structures and contractual silos between governmental entities commissioning models, private model developers, and engineering firms as operators. These relationships breed systemic risk aversion, where stakeholders default to legacy methods to ensure predictable legal and financial approval."
2️⃣ Not only code
"Today, cloud-native and desktop applications such as Tramola by Simunto, replan.city, and Mobility Studio provide graphical user interfaces for visual scenario editing, cloud-based computation management, and direct output analysis."
3️⃣ #SIMBA #MOBi featured in the paper
"A prominent example is SIMBA MOBi, developed in-house by Swiss Federal Railways #SBB and operational since 2020. Driven by the need to evaluate disruptive mobility schemes (...) alongside traditional rail infrastructure, SBB built this national-scale model using a hybrid approach combining #PTV #Visum and #MATSim. It directly supports corporate management decisions regarding future line concepts, rolling stock investments & long-term service changes."
Antonin Danalet